A Date For The Bear: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Bear Brides Book 2) (5 page)

“Terri?” he asked
worriedly.

“Am I Turning into a
werebear? Is that why...I feel...so much...pain?” she wheezed.

“No. He didn't
complete his bite. You can't Turn.”

“Oh. So...I'm still
h-human.” Her voice was faltering.

“Yes. And no.”

Terri raised her head to look
at him. Her gaze was clear for an instant before clouding over.

“You...lied to me,”
she said very softly as her head slumped and her eyes closed. There
was no fear in her voice, but she sounded hurt. “I am going to
die.”

Terri groaned...and growled.

What? What!

She snapped her eyes wide
open and gasped. Did she really just growl? Like a bear?

She opened her mouth and
another low growl rumbled out of her. Shit! Clasping her hands over
her mouth, she looked up at the circle of worried faces hovering over
her.

Terri tried to sit up but a
jolt of pain seared through every nerve in her body. Her limbs
jerked and twitched uncontrollably and she almost slapped herself
twice with her out-of-control hands.

“What...who...?”
she spluttered, feeling drool trickle from the slack corner of her
mouth.

Terri heard someone call her
name, and she saw her best friend, Abby, push forward and hold both
her hands. “Terri, I'm here. We're all here with you. We'll
find a way. We will...” Abby blinked rapidly and smiled, but
not before Terri saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes.

“I'm screwed, aren't
I?” Terri grimaced. “I...I'm stuck, not bear, not
human, just...dying.”

“No! Don't you talk
like that!” Abby said fiercely. “You're not dying. The
whole Nightfire clan is here. They're all werebears. They'll know
what to do. The elder bears are talking, discussing what to do.
They'll help you.”

Terri gripped her friend's
hand even though she could hardly feel her fingertips. Her hands
were going numb and she was shivering and sweating, freezing and
burning at the same time.

“Abby...” Terri
tried to choke back her fear, her tears.

Cole, Abby's mate and the
Alpha of the Nightfire clan, came forward to touch Terri's shoulder.
“You're not alone, Terri. We'll find a way together,” he
said grimly.

His Beta, Dalton, stepped up
and whispered to Cole, “Amanda, Connor's great-grandmother
would like to talk to you.”

Cole nodded and was about to
turn away when Terri grabbed his arm. “Please...I want to
know.”

Cole and Abby exchanged a
glance. Abby gave her husband a quick nod and gripped Terri's hand
even tighter.

“Terri has a right to
know. She should hear what Amanda has to say,” Cole told
Dalton.

Dalton went off and returned
promptly with a hunched, silver-haired lady with keen, green eyes.
Amanda tapped her cane on the floor and looked straight at Terri.
“I'm sorry, dear. There is no way to undo this. There used to
be a way to reverse the Turn, but it's a lost art. It's a
complicated, dangerous process. My mother knew less than half the
steps, and I know even less than that. The knowledge died with my
grandmother.” Amanda sighed. “I'm the oldest bear here.
No one else even knows how to kick-start the reversal process. I
only know that we have to bleed you first...”

“Do it!” Terri
said through gritted teeth. “Bleed me, just...undo this
thing.”

Amanda shook her head,
leaning against her cane. “No. I cannot start the process if
I don't know how to end it. I may...cause you even more suffering.”
The lines on Amanda's face deepened, and she looked like she had
aged another fifty years in the last five minutes. She looked at
Terri with sadness and sympathy, and muttered what sounded like a
prayer as she placed her wrinkled hand on Terri's forehead. “Be
strong, child. Choose to live, choose to Turn,” she finished
very quietly.

“What...are you
saying?” Terri whispered.

“No human should be
Turned against her will. What that werebear did to you was a
horrible, terrible thing,” Amanda said, her eyes flashing with
rage. “You have to choose, Terri.”

“Choose?”

Amanda nodded. “We
don't know how to undo what has been done to you. So...you have to
choose, to live, to go forward, to...complete the Turn.”

“What a choice,”
Terri muttered, doing a credible eye-roll despite her pain.

“It is your choice,”
Amanda answered. “We will not Turn you into a werebear if you
do not wish to be one.”

Terri gasped as another
thunderbolt of pain hurtled down her body. She yelled and grabbed
Amanda's hand before the elder werebear could leave her bedside. “I
choose to Turn! I want to live...and kick his bloody ass! Help me,
please!”

There was a flicker of a
smile on Amanda's face. Her green eyes seemed to shine with relief
and pride. “Good, good. You're a strong one. Choose, Terri.
Choose the one who will Turn you.”

“What?”

“To Turn someone is a
huge responsibility. To accept the Turning is an act of faith and
trust. There has to be trust, and affection, between the two of you.
You will always share a bond, a link, a connection. All your life,”
Amanda added, with pointed emphasis on the last three words.

Terri blew out a breath and
released Amanda's thin hand. She stared round at the crowd of
werebears gathered around her bed. Terri frowned. No, this wasn't
her bed. So whose bed was it?

“Where...?” she
began, her voice rising.

Abby must have seen the panic
on her face. “You're in Tony's house,” Abby said
quickly, coming to her side. “He brought you here, remember?”

Terri scanned the faces and
saw Tony standing against the wall, staring at her. He looked much
the worse for wear. His hair was standing on end, as if he had
repeatedly raked his fingers through it and his chin was covered with
dark stubble. His eyes though remained alert and sharp. His mouth
was set in a thin, grim line and his stance appeared relaxed, but
Terri could see the strain in his tense, throbbing muscles.

Terri raised her finger and
pointed. “I choose him,” she blurted out.

With an audible gulp, she
rushed on, “I want him to Turn me.”

Tony sucked in a sharp
breath. He pushed off the wall as every head in the room swiveled to
cast shocked, disbelieving glances at him.

Keeping his gaze on her, he
strode to Terri's side and loomed over her. “You choose me,”
he said, keeping his voice level.

She swallowed and jerked up
her chin. “I choose you.”

There was a flash of defiance
and challenge in her eyes. “Are you not up to it?”

Tony's lips twitched. Even
at this time, with her life in the balance, she couldn't resist
taunting and daring him.

She was breathing rather too
quickly, and Tony saw sweat beading on her upper lip. She was
fighting her pain, and being so brave about it. Any human would have
been scared witless by now. It was terrifying to not be in control
of your body, to know that there was a beast inside you just waiting
to shred your insides to ribbons and kill you.

Tony cupped her upturned face
in his large hand and stroked her cheek. It was a gentle, tender
gesture, one that surprised the both of them. And from the muttered
comments around him, it surprised everyone as well.

“I will Turn you,
Terri. You are a strong, beautiful human, and you will be a strong,
beautiful werebear,” he said softly. “I...I'm sorry I
was such a jerk before. I shouldn't have...judged you, without
knowing you.”

Terri frowned. “Judged
me?”

“I assumed you were
like all the other human women I'd known. I didn't want to get
involved with a human female ever again. So...”

“So you tried to deny
yourself, deny your attraction to me,” Terri finished for him.

“Yes. I was a bloody
fool.”

“You most definitely
were. A fool and a jerk.” Terri frowned. “But...y-you
were going to ask me something...in the car...”

“I wanted to ask you if
you would...go out with me.”

Terri's lips parted, and she
blinked. She looked surprised, confused and delighted at his words.
To his amazement, she looked down and blushed. She was really so
pretty when she blushed.

Tony ignored the gasps and
mutters around them, focusing his attention solely on Terri.

But he didn't get to hear
Terri's reply. Amanda came up to him and tugged urgently at his arm.
“A word.”

Tony understood her look and
tone. There was something important the elder werebear needed to
tell him. He let her pull him to a corner and bent his head low so
she wouldn't have to crane her neck to look up at him.

“Yes, Amanda.”

“The human has made her
choice,” Amanda began. “She is obviously strong in body
and spirit. But...”

“Go on,” he said
grimly.

“There is always a risk
that her body will reject the foreign shifter cells. You must be
prepared.”

“I will Turn her
properly.” It was a promise to Amanda, Terri and himself.

“I know you will.”
Amanda patted his hand. She hesitated briefly before carrying on,
“There...is something else you should know. During the Turn,
the animal instincts may take hold of the human host. The human will
experience the intense, unbearable hunger and lust of the animal.
The bear will want to mate. It is a natural animal need and want.
And, if I may add, mating will ease the process, distract her from
the pain, and quicken the Turn.”

Tony felt his jaw drop.
“You're asking me to...to...”

“I'm not asking you to
do anything. It's up to the both of you.”

“But you're saying...”

Amanda shrugged and gave him
a shove. “You better go. Your lady is starting to lose her
looks.”

Tony jerked when he saw Terri
convulsing and thrashing on the bed. Amanda wasn't joking. Terri's
human features were contorting and twisting into some unrecognizable
shape, halfway between bear and woman. Her gray eyes were darkening,
flashing, changing colors and cycling between human and animal. Fur
appeared and vanished on her arms and neck, and parts of her seemed
to become invisible. Tony tried to grab her hand, but his fist
closed around thin air. A paw shimmered below her wrist, complete
with curved, glinting claws. Tony held on to that shaking paw, only
to have it change shape in his palm. Terri's small, trembling hand
lay in his, covered in blood as pinpricks of fur stabbed through her
soft, human skin.

Terri screamed, a wrenching
sound that tore his heart and soul in two. Tony pulled her to him
and bellowed, “Out! All of you, get the hell out of my room!”

Cole and Dalton barked
orders, and by the time Tony turned back to Terri, there was only the
echo of rushing footsteps as his bedroom door closed. He had ordered
them out of his room, but he knew his clan wouldn't leave him. They
would be close by, ready to render assistance and support at a roar.

Tony tore off Terri's clothes
and pressed her feverish body back on the bed. She scratched at him
and hissed when he tried to hold her.

“Terri, trust me,”
he said, sliding his hand to her nape. “I will never hurt
you.”

Terri's body relaxed visibly
at the sound of his voice. Her eyes stopped darting in all
directions and focused on his face. Tony thought he saw her smile,
but it could just have been a twitch of her facial muscle.

“Tony?” Her
voice sounded uncharacteristically small. “You won't leave
me?”

“No, Terri, I will
never leave you. We will get through this together. I will take
care of you. I promise.”

“Why are you doing
this?” she asked. There was a brief moment of absolute clarity
in her eyes.

“Because...I—I
like you. A lot.” Tony closed his eyes.
More than a lot.
More than...

“Even though I'm a
human female?” Terri coughed out a laugh and patted his cheek.
“I like you a lot too, Tony-boy. Even though you're the
grouchiest bear I've ever met.”

Turning away, she flicked her
hair back and bared her neck for him. “I might not be human
much longer,” she mumbled. “I just know that this is
going to hurt like a bitch.” She closed her eyes and sighed,
“I wonder if I can choose the color of my fur...”

Tony pulled his bear to the
surface, letting the beast prowl just below his skin. As his fangs
and claws pushed out, he glared at the discolored, dried blood on
Terri's neck. The shifter cells in her blood had set to work
immediately, repairing and healing the wound. The wound had closed
so she was no longer bleeding outwardly. But she would start to
bleed internally if he didn't Turn her fast. She would drown in her
own blood as her half-formed bear clawed her insides to mush as it
tried and failed to emerge.